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Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Every week day, Certified Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Business Consultant Vasco Duarte interviews Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches from all over the world to get you actionable advice, new tips and tricks, improve your craft as a Scrum Master with daily doses of inspiring conversations with Scrum Masters from the all over the world. Stay tuned for BONUS episodes when we interview Agile gurus and other thought leaders in the business space to bring you the Agile Business perspective you need to succeed as a Scrum Master. Some of the topics we discuss include: Agile Business, Agile Strategy, Retrospectives, Team motivation, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Backlog Refinement, Scaling Scrum, Lean Startup, Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Paper Prototyping, QA in Scrum, the role of agile managers, servant leadership, agile coaching, and more!
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Now displaying: 2022
Oct 24, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Allison’s team loved her work. They even had a nickname for her. Allison worked hard everyday to protect the team from interference, interruption and all manner of disturbances. Everything seemed to be going great, until something unexpected happened that revealed to Allison that Scrum Masters can be going wrong, even when everything around them seems to tell them they are doing the right thing! Listen in to learn what was that mistake, and how to make sure you don’t fall prey to the same temptation!

 

About Allison Zimmerman

Allison believes that all people have the power to succeed when they work together. As a teacher-turned-scrum master, she has spent the last five years helping enterprise teams build on their strengths to deliver customer value. She also serves as a Scrum Master Community of Practice leader, supporting growth and development of scrum masters across many teams.

You can link with Allison Zimmerman on LinkedIn

Oct 21, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

The Great Product Owner: The great Facilitator

This Product Owner had come from a Marketing Background, and had no experience with Scrum or as a PO. However, the PO was great at facilitation, and listening to the team and stakeholders. People felt heard, and understood by the PO, who was open minded!

The Bad Product Owner: The career-oriented PO

This Product Owner had come from a business background, and was focused on getting a promotion “out of the PO role”. The PO was using Scrumn as a means to further their own career, and that left the Scrum Master and team bitter about the way in which they were treated!

Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

 

About Shahin Sheidaei

Shahin Sheidaei is an Agile, Lean and Success Coach,International Speaker, Transformation Expert, and Entrepreneur.  

Shahin is a passionate organizational designer focusing on organizational performance, and is also founder and principal coach at Elevate Change Inc.

You can link with Shahin Sheidaei on LinkedIn and connect with Shahin Sheidaei on Twitter

Oct 20, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Even if Scrum Masters can focus on “working themselves out of a job”, the fact is that not many teams can get to that level, and even the ones that can get there, it’s not easy to find out when is the right time to step back. In this segment, we talk about what it means for a team to be self-sufficient, and how Scrum Masters can evaluate if the team is ready to be given more autonomy.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The 5 Why’s and some caveats when facilitating that format

Shahin starts by sharing a key lesson about making the Retrospectives adjust to the team, and their mood, instead of asking the team to adjust to the Retrospective format we prepared in advance. 

In this segment, we talk about the 5 Why’s Retrospective, and some of the caveats we must take into account when facilitating that kind of Retrospectives.

Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Shahin Sheidaei

Shahin Sheidaei is an Agile, Lean and Success Coach,International Speaker, Transformation Expert, and Entrepreneur.  

Shahin is a passionate organizational designer focusing on organizational performance, and is also founder and principal coach at Elevate Change Inc.

You can link with Shahin Sheidaei on LinkedIn and connect with Shahin Sheidaei on Twitter

Oct 19, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Shahin joined a company to work with teams. However, when he joined, he quickly realized that the issues the teams were facing were not caused by the teams themselves. When Shahin tried to work with leadership, he realized that he would not be very successful if he continued to push in that direction, so he backed out and looked for other ways to influence leadership. Listen in to learn how Shahin was able to help leaders understand what needed to be done, and how he setup the work with the leadership team. 

 

About Shahin Sheidaei

Shahin Sheidaei is an Agile, Lean and Success Coach,International Speaker, Transformation Expert, and Entrepreneur.  

Shahin is a passionate organizational designer focusing on organizational performance, and is also founder and principal coach at Elevate Change Inc.

You can link with Shahin Sheidaei on LinkedIn and connect with Shahin Sheidaei on Twitter

Oct 18, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Shahin was working with a group of Scrum Masters. As he started to observe the work of the Scrum Masters, he observed a pattern that he could not understand. The team lacked energy. In an effort to help the team, and the Scrum Master, Shahin and the Scrum Master started to do some small changes to the meetings and Scrum ceremonies, but the needle didn’t move. Eventually the Scrum Master left the organization. Later on, Shahin met some of the team members and learned the real pattern that had been going on in that team, a dark pattern that we must be aware of! Listen in to learn what the pattern was, and how you can be ready for it! 

Featured Book of the Week: Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen

The book Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen is a book that Shahin still goes back to even after having read it many years ago. It’s a book that can help starting Scrum Masters to be ready to host great Retrospectives for their teams, especially when they don’t yet have a large number of tools to use in those ceremonies. 

In this segment, we also refer to The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. A book that Shahin describes as a story telling book that brings a perspective of the whole organization performance, a perspective that we don’t often have as a Scrum Master 

How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta!

 

About Shahin Sheidaei

Shahin Sheidaei is an Agile, Lean and Success Coach,International Speaker, Transformation Expert, and Entrepreneur.  

Shahin is a passionate organizational designer focusing on organizational performance, and is also founder and principal coach at Elevate Change Inc.

You can link with Shahin Sheidaei on LinkedIn and connect with Shahin Sheidaei on Twitter.

Oct 17, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Shahin was working in a company where a consultant was brought in to reorganize the organization. As part of that, the role of Scrum Master was considered redundant. This prompted a rethink for Shahin, who had to find a different role, where he could do the work that needed to be done: the Scrum Master role. Listen in to learn a key lesson that Shahin learned about how to present and discuss about the role of the Scrum Master with leadership.

 

About Shahin Sheidaei

Shahin Sheidaei is an Agile, Lean and Success Coach,International Speaker, Transformation Expert, and Entrepreneur.  

Shahin is a passionate organizational designer focusing on organizational performance, and is also founder and principal coach at Elevate Change Inc.

You can link with Shahin Sheidaei on LinkedIn and connect with Shahin Sheidaei on Twitter

Oct 15, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

 

About Mickey Alon

Mickey Alon is the founder and CTO of Gainsight PX, the Product Experience Platform. He is a serial entrepreneur focused on designing, building and launching innovative products that help drive business outcomes. Mickey co-authored Mastering Product-Led Growth - a book on building product-led growth strategy. He’s held several executive positions at other companies, including being the CEO and co-Founder at Insightera.

You can link with Mickey Alon on LinkedIn

Oct 14, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

The Great Product Owner: The balance of skills that enables delivery of customer value!

A great Product Owner finds a balance between helping, and attending to the customer needs, and what the team needs to succeed. Great Product Owners also build relationships with the team and their stakeholders. Even if a great PO might not be technical, they are able to create a common language with the team, so that both can inform each other and come to decisions that help the team succeed in the ultimate goal of delivering customer value! 

The Bad Product Owner: The many anti-patterns that emerge when the PO does not understand their role

In this segment, we discuss several Product Owner anti-patterns. We start with the problem that many people in the role don’t have a deep enough understanding of the role, and it’s expectations, even if they are quite clearly defined in the Scrum Guide. From that lack of understanding many patterns can emerge, from not being able to contain/manage the scope to lack of understanding that the PO is there to help the team succeed, and not to be a “demanding tyrant customer” to the team! Listen in to learn about some of the critical anti-patterns that emerge when people don’t understand the PO role sufficiently well. 

In this segment, we refer to the Coach Your PO e-course, which outlines some of the aspects to cover with PO’s and how to do it

Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

About Nousheen Manzoor

Nousheen believes that the future of leadership is kindness and empathy, and the same goes for any role which involves individuals and teams, like the Scrum Master role!

You can link with Nousheen Manzoor on LinkedIn.

Oct 13, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Velocity can be a tempting metric for Scrum Masters to follow, but that’s no measure of success as Nousheen reminds us. In this segment, we talk about how important it is to create an environment where the team itself can work on improving their performance, and how to include 3rd party (e.g. a client) feedback in your own assessment as a Scrum Master. 

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The WADE Matrix, a great retrospective for the end of a tough project

In this segment, we talk about the WADE Matrix retrospective format, which can be used as an in depth reflection and a closure technique for a project that just ended. In this segment, we also talk about some techniques you can use to help a team create a lot of ideas in a retrospective, even if they are usually silent.

Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Nousheen Manzoor

Nousheen believes that the future of leadership is kindness and empathy, and the same goes for any role which involves individuals and teams, like the Scrum Master role!

You can link with Nousheen Manzoor on LinkedIn.

Oct 12, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Nousheen was working with a team at the client’s site. Based on what the client wanted to achieve, they suggested that the client change their processes, and instead of working with a collection of Excel spreadsheets, the team suggestd the client use JIRA, and a process defined in JIRA instead. As soon as they presented their ideas, Nousheen sensed massive resistance from the client. This was a clear sign that a new approach to the change was required. Listen in to learn about the approaches that Nousheen and the team put in place to help the client, and get the client onboard. 

In this episode, we refer to the book Lean Change Management by Jason Little

 

About Nousheen Manzoor

Nousheen believes that the future of leadership is kindness and empathy, and the same goes for any role which involves individuals and teams, like the Scrum Master role!

You can link with Nousheen Manzoor on LinkedIn.

Oct 11, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Nousheen started working with this team in the middle of the project. At the time, the team had one month to go live. However, Nousheen noticed that the team was demotivated, and there was a lot of blaming behavior happening in the team meetings. In this episode, we discuss how teams can sometimes push themselves beyond what’s acceptable, and forget about self-care and sustainability. 

In this segment we talk about the Three Amigos meeting, a method to help teams prepare the requirements/User Stories in time, and with the right perspectives. 

Featured Book of the Week: Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

The book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer tells the story of how very experienced people can fail. The book explores the disaster that occurred in Mount Everest on 10–11 May 1996, and how good intentions, and the desire to “achieve the summit” (literally) created a complex set of factors that ultimately led great people to make some very bad decisions. It’s a book filled with lessons for Scrum Masters, even those that work with great teams!

How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta!

About Nousheen Manzoor

Nousheen believes that the future of leadership is kindness and empathy, and the same goes for any role which involves individuals and teams, like the Scrum Master role!

You can link with Nousheen Manzoor on LinkedIn.

Oct 10, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

In this project, there were several teams working on different aspects of the project: UI, Data, etc. The Project Manager pushed the different teams to “deliver”, even if that was done at the expense of quality. Nousheen, wanting to help, started to push the team as well, leaving some of the critical aspects of being a Scrum Master behind. Listen in to learn how the “push to deliver” created a negative spiral for the project, and learn some of the key lessons Nousheen got from that project. 

 

About Nousheen Manzoor

Nousheen believes that the future of leadership is kindness and empathy, and the same goes for any role which involves individuals and teams, like the Scrum Master role!

You can link with Nousheen Manzoor on LinkedIn.

Oct 7, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

The Great Product Owner: The Customer advocate Product Owner

This Product Owner was very close to the customer, and listened to their needs as well as the struggles they had with the product. Through their work, the PO tried to focus on adding to the backlog stories that would help the customer directly, and would often act as the customer when talking to the team. They were able to focus on prioritization, and prioritized the work for the team. The PO was also able to create clear priorities and have conversations with the team about the 3 V’s: Vision, Value, and Validation. 

The Bad Product Owner: The Product Owner that skipped the Sprint Reviews, and what that caused for the Scrum team

The processes we have in place influence the choices, and the focus of the Product Owners. In this segment, we talk about a team and their Product Owner that did not host a Sprint Review. Instead, the PO would focus on reviews with individuals, separate discussion with single stakeholders. However, that meant that other stakeholders would not know what the team had worked on during the Sprint. Furthermore, the team was not involved, and did not have the chance to show, and be proud of what they had accomplished during the Sprint. This was an anti-pattern that Ruta tried to overcome. Listen in to learn how Ruta tackled this anti-pattern.

Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

Oct 6, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Ruta shares some of the behaviors she wants to see in a team, to assess her own success as a Scrum Master. Behind the behaviors listed, we find the need to observe ownership and commitment on the part of the team. Listen in, to hear the list of behaviors, and how you can evaluate those for your team.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The 4L’s with some customizations to help the team have fun in the retrospective!

Ruta’s suggestion for the week is the 4 L’s retrospective, with some customizations that help the team get into the mood of the Agile Retrospective, and add some fun to the retrospective. 

In this segment, we refer to the interview with Robbie Ross and the concept of Relentless Improvement.

Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

About Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn

Oct 5, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Ruta was working with a group of Scrum Masters to create and launch an Agile Release Train. They looked at the process as a change that required certain steps to be successful. In this episode, we discuss the step-by-step process you can use to create and launch an Agile Release Train, prepare the first PI Planning event, and align all the teams!

 

About Ruta Hardikar

Ruta has over 8 years experience with Agile, and has taken the roles of Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE in SAFe), working with GM Financial.

You can link with Ruta Hardikar on LinkedIn

Oct 4, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

As part of working with teams, we must learn to grow teams, to make them feel as a group that can perform and overcome the challenges they will inevitably face. In this segment, we talk about a team Ruta was working with, and how she helped them create a safe space to share and talk about “the hard stuff”, and how we can build in team building into the Scrum ceremonies with the goal of building a great team. 

In this segment, we talk about the Tuckman model of group development, and the book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni.

Featured Book of the Week: Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

In Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry, Ruta found different aspects we need to develop as Scrum Masters. Scrum Masters work in a people-oriented job, therefore we need to actively study and learn more about people’s defining characteristics. The book helped Ruta learn to manage, and benefit from emotions, rather than be afraid of them. 

In this segment, we also talk about Start with Why by Simon Sinek.

How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta!

Oct 3, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Ruta started working with a new team that had recently adopted Agile. Many of the practices and processes were new to the team, but also to Ruta as the Scrum Master. As Ruta started to push for some changes, she noticed that the Product Owner and Business Analyst on the team wanted to control the Sprint Reviews very carefully, including who was invited to see the team’s deliverables. When Ruta started to ask about why they wanted to control the Sprint Reviews so carefully, she discovered something that helped her understand the why, but also the need to consider people’s personalities when implementing Scrum.

In this episode, we refer to the book The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday.

Oct 1, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

About Geoff Watts

Geoff Watts is the founder of Inspect & Adapt, The Agile Licensing Library, ORGANIC agility and most recently Agile Mastery Institute and one of the most well-respected authors, coaches, trainers and speakers in the worlds of agile and coaching. Oh yeah - and he has also co-written an agile joke book as well!

You can find out more about the Agile Mastery Institute, and Geoff Watts

Sep 30, 2022

This Product Owner was very open to taking into account the needs and requests by the team, and spent time with the team, trying to understand those. The PO felt ownership over the outcome the team was able to deliver, and tried to help the team achieve what was needed. This was a PO that felt, and made the team feel they were part of the team! 

The Bad Product Owner: Blaming the team, and other anti-patterns

This Product Owner was very distant from the team, and did not see themselves as part of the development process. It was a case of the PO missing the “owner” in the role name. Although they shared what needed to be done, they did not spend time with the team working through the requirements. Then, in the Sprint reviews, he would throw the team under the bus, and criticise them openly. This was just one of the many anti-patterns, listen in to learn about the other major anti-patterns this PO displayed. 

Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

About Pedro Silva

Pedro considers himself a Scrum Master supporting software development teams while keeping his focus on their growth towards the efficient delivery of value, while having a blast.

You can link with Pedro Silva on LinkedIn.

Sep 29, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

When it comes to defining success, Pedro has some key questions he asks of himself to assess his impact as a Scrum Master. Listen in to learn about the four questions Pedro asks when assessing his own work, and the impact on the Scrum team.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Team Canvas, a tool to help build great teams

Pedro likes to use the Team Canvas as a way to help teams come together, and define their joint, group identity. He also uses some ice-breaker exercises like the MAD/SAD/GLAD or Lean Coffee formats, which we’ve discussed in previous episodes here on the podcast. 

 

About Pedro Silva

Pedro considers himself a Scrum Master supporting software development teams while keeping his focus on their growth towards the efficient delivery of value, while having a blast.

You can link with Pedro Silva on LinkedIn.

Sep 28, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

When teams, and organizations start on their Agile adoption journey, Pedro observes, they often lack the ability to grasp what needs to be different in the team and the organization beyond the “simple” process change. In this episode, we talk about a team that started their Agile journey on the wrong foot, and discuss what Scrum Masters can do to help teams grasp what “else” need to be different. 

 

About Pedro Silva

Pedro considers himself a Scrum Master supporting software development teams while keeping his focus on their growth towards the efficient delivery of value, while having a blast.

You can link with Pedro Silva on LinkedIn.

Sep 27, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

When Pedro joined this team, he noticed that the team members did not try to include a new team member in their conversation. Although sometimes this pattern is subtle, in this team it was an obvious lack of inclusivity in the team’s approach to communication: they did not use a language that the new team member would understand! Listen in to hear the critical lessons Pedro learned about inclusivity in Agile teams! 

Featured Book of the Week: The Speed Of Trust by Stephen Covey

In The Speed Of Trust by Stephen Covey, Pedro found a clear manual on how to focus on building trust within an Agile team, and with stakeholders. He shares one of the key lessons, that trust has many different aspects that we don’t often consider. Listen in to learn how trust can change depending on the relationship and the context. 

 

About Pedro Silva

Pedro considers himself a Scrum Master supporting software development teams while keeping his focus on their growth towards the efficient delivery of value, while having a blast.

You can link with Pedro Silva on LinkedIn.

Sep 26, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Pedro joined a team right at the start of the Corona pandemic, and because of that did not have the opportunity to spend time with the team face to face before the team went full remote. This led to Pedro not being able to create a bond with each team member. Later on, he realized that the team had started to drift apart themselves, and on top of that, Pedro did not have the strong relationships that would allow him to help the team members open up, and share their challenges. Listen in to learn what to take into account when starting as a full remote Scrum Master.

 

About Pedro Silva

Pedro considers himself a Scrum Master supporting software development teams while keeping his focus on their growth towards the efficient delivery of value, while having a blast.

You can link with Pedro Silva on LinkedIn.

Sep 23, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

The Great Product Owner: Enthusiastic Product Owners, and how they behave when working with Scrum teams

Great Product Owners are enthusiastic about what they do, they have a clear Vision, but are able to stay curious and listen to the team, stakeholders, and customers. In this segment, we look at some of the behaviors that Product Owners like this have when interacting with the team and the Scrum master.

The Bad Product Owner: Two Anti-Patterns to look out for!

In this segment, we explore two Product Owner anti-patterns that illustrate how the PO role is not only critical, but can be actively destructive for a Scrum team. The first story features a Product Owner that preferred to focus on the hardware side of the product, and through their command-and-control personality tried to bully the Scrum Master into submission! 

The second story is about the Product Owner that was absent, a very frequent anti-pattern for the PO role. 

In this segment, we refer to our Coach Your Product Owner e-course, which helps you tackle some of these anti-patterns proactively in your role as a Scrum Master!

Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.

About Shaun Bradshaw

Shaun is a founder and principal of Zenergy Technologies, a modern software delivery solutions firm that specializes in Agile, DevOps, Quality, and Automation. Shaun’s background in QA, testing, and metrics has played an important role in his work as an Agile consultant since he joined the community in 2008.

You can link with Shaun Bradshaw on LinkedIn and connect with Shaun Bradshaw on Twitter. You can also follow Shaun Bradshaw’s blog at the Zenergy Technologies site.

Sep 22, 2022

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

When looking out for his own success in working with a Scrum team, Shaun pays special attention to how team members speak with each other, and the stance they take regarding collaboration as a team. In this segment, we also explore what we can do when our teams are remote, and the observations that we need to make are no longer that easy because team members are not right there, in front of us.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Exploring emotions with the Mad/Sad/Glad format

Emotions are very powerful influencers in a team. If we can’t talk about them, we miss what might be the key influencer in some patterns we notice in teams and between teams and stakeholders. Shaun invites us to explore emotions with the Mad/Sad/Glad retrospective format. 

In this segment, we refer to the Core Protocols (of which Mad/Sad/Glad is part), which has been a topic in our podcast before. 

Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!  

 

About Shaun Bradshaw

Shaun is a founder and principal of Zenergy Technologies, a modern software delivery solutions firm that specializes in Agile, DevOps, Quality, and Automation. Shaun’s background in QA, testing, and metrics has played an important role in his work as an Agile consultant since he joined the community in 2008.

You can link with Shaun Bradshaw on LinkedIn and connect with Shaun Bradshaw on Twitter. You can also follow Shaun Bradshaw’s blog at the Zenergy Technologies site.

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